More than Words
by dekafeene
Summary: Inspired by hoperai week's prompts on tumblr. "Words aren't the only way to tell someone how you feel." — Tifa Lockhart, FFVII. Seven situations in which words aren't the only way for Lightning and Hope to tell how they feel.
1. day one, partners (iv)

I don't own _Final Fantasy XIII _or its sequels.

A small drabble, ficlet, oneshot for Hoperai week, day 1. LR!verse. No spoilers. Set between day 3. _trust_ and day 4. _protection_.  
English isn't my first language so bad grammar and weird sentence structures are to be expected. Criticism are obviously welcomed.

**Right timeline **– day **2**. space, day **6**. dress-up, day **3**. trust, day **1**. partners, day **4**. protection, day **7**. future, day **5**. alternate universe. It can stand alone but well... you can read it again in the right timeline when Hoperai week will end.

Though it should've been better to put it in LR fandom since four of the seven chapters take place in LR!verse, I chose FE13 fandom simply because the first prompt I wrote was set during FE13!verse.

He's changed, but so has she.

_Soko ni iru kimi wa_  
_Ima dake no, kimi ja nai  
Kyou made no yorokobi ya  
Kanashimi to issho ni ikiteru_

_(The you that is there_  
_isn't the only you there is now_  
_You are living together with all the joy_  
_and sorrow you've experienced up until today)_

_Maaya Sakamoto, More than Words._

* * *

**More than Words  
partners**

She sees him again after waking from her crystallized sleep to this ill, apocalyptic, dying world in a body of a child.

He tells her what happened after her sister's sudden death, when the goddess Etro vanished and let the chaos infect their world, how it changed everything and stayed the same for the next five hundred years and as he talks, Lightning watches him, eyes him and can't help to compare the Hope she sees now to the Hope she'd spent her time with hundreds years ago.

To her, the Hope she's facing looks exactly like she remembers, the same messy silver hair, the same face, heck, even the same clothes save for the green, childish-looking scarf, having been switched to a simpler, more sober black one.

And of course, his eyes too aren't quite like she remembers them—his grassy big eyes no longer hold the pure, sparkling glow she'd seen a long time ago. They don't sparkle anymore nor do they reflect any emotion he feels.

Well, if he can still feel.

Because she knows him, or maybe she used to know him because he looks like the Hope from a millennia ago but he's not him, he's not Hope. Lightning can see how he's changed, how his green eyes look at her yet they aren't really, how he's staring at her, staring _through _her as if she doesn't exist—she knows that look because she shares the very same one.

That indifferent, apathetic gaze, as if nothing in the world really matters.

She doesn't understand this, the way she now feels, so indifferent and so unfamiliar from her past lives—when she was still human, or l'Cie, or Etro's champion and protector because at least, in these lives, she was able to feel, she had still feelings and now, there's only emptiness.

Her voice is cool when she speaks, similar to Hope's as she wonders how she doesn't feel very much human right now. Hope replies in the same aloof voice, he has a theory about this, that the god, the maker or whoever had kidnapped him one hundred and sixty-nine years ago and placed him in the ark and waken her up from her five-hundred-year sleep had chosen to cast their feelings aside for it decided they have no need of them to do what it expects them to. She watches him explain his theory, blue eyes like ice staring at him with apathy and agrees with him—both of them are no longer the same they were before. They're no longer l'Cie nor are they gods but they aren't quite human either.

And so, as she gets ready to go back to this dying world to saves souls because she's that savior woman, hair of the color of pink that goes along with the savior legend and looks back at him because she can't help to stare at him, there's a flicker in his eyes, she notices, something that wasn't there earlier akin to a feeling she acknowledges as joy or happiness or relief or hope and it actually catches her off guard.

Her eyes widen ever so slightly in surprise and as she vanishes from the Ark, Lightning is certain he saw that little, almost unseen movement of her eyelids and they both know, somehow, that they felt something though they shouldn't be able to.

Maybe it's because the god has made a mistake, or maybe it's because they've found each other again after a millennia apart of loneliness, or maybe it's simply because they still have a part of humanity left inside them that they somehow can feel again.

He's changed, Lightning concludes as she emerges from the train of Luxerion's north station, and so has she and yet, a millennia past their first meeting, she knows there's one thing that would never really change between them.

They're partners.

Just like old times.

**Words** 647


	2. day two, space (i)

I don't own _Final Fantasy XIII_ or its sequels.

A oneshot for hoperai week, day 2. FF13!verse. Longer than I expected. No spoilers. First chapter, set before day 6. _dress-up _which has yet to be published.  
English isn't my first language so bad grammar and weird sentence structures are to be expected. Criticism and reviews are obviously welcomed.

Lightning loves her space and sometimes, she shares it.

_Ichiban taisetsu na koto wa keshite iwanakute ii_  
_Kono sora ya yureru haoto ya sekai ga zenbu shitteru_

_(It's definitely alright not to say the things which are most important  
The sky, the sound of the rustling leaves, the world knows it all)_

_Maaya Sakamoto, More than Words._

* * *

**More than Words  
space**

Lightning's always been alert with her surroundings.

Trained as a soldier, she notices every little thing detail of her surroundings, from the number of people in the district she's monitoring, their gender and their clothes, keeping an eye at that black-haired teenager who's owning a small knife hidden in his pocket, plotting the quickest route to track down that man who seems to attempt something suspicious to the license plate numbers of all cars parked here.

To begin with, she was already a clever and perceptive girl—if she hadn't had to look after her little sister and work to support the both of them, she'd have certainly ended up at Eden university with good grades. Nevertheless, she didn't regret joining the Guardian Corps to provide them an income, as it actually seemed pretty logic to her to join the GC after collecting odd jobs throughout high school. A stable job was a necessity, for both Serah and her and since public services paid its workers rather well, she just decided to enroll in the army.

Through her training, she's learned many things but mostly how to fight, learning hand-in-hand combat as well as armed combat, being naturally gifted with gunblades and thus, when she completed her training months after and was put into Lieutenant Amodar's squad of Bodhum Security Regiment, he offered a customized one as a welcome gift. That happened three years ago.

_"Remember, Farron," he once told her, "The length of your blade represents your area, your space. Let an enemy in and you're good as dead."_

If she's ever learned something useful aside from her combat skills, it'd certainly be this.

She loves her space, it gives her a sense of control and security. No one goes there if she doesn't let them in. She protects it with all her might, destroying any monster that dares to ever step a foot in and glares at whoever tries to come near her bubble against her will—glaring mostly at that bulky good-for-nothing Snow though she's been somewhat tolerating him ever since the Purge incident.

In fact, except for Serah because she's her sister, there's only one person she's let enter her space, finding herself gazing upon his sleeping form at the thought of him.

Hope.

He's sleeping several meters across her, sitting against a big stone with his head bent just a little backwards, lips slightly open and arms flat against his sides with one knee fold and the other leg straight on the grassy ground—she would've smiled at the cute sight of him had she not seen the way his eyebrows furrow and the lines of his face sharpen, making his face wince as though he was in pain.

From the way his lips are twitching, Lightning deduces he must be muttering something but Snow's loud and annoying snores which is currently lying next to her cover his faint whispers and she can't hear them even if she tries hard to listen so she gets up silently from the spot she was sitting on, gripping her gunblade in a tight hold in case of any surprise attacks of monsters and makes her way over Hope in light steps, attempting to approach him without waking her comrades up.

"Mom…" she finally hears him when she's standing before him, whispering in a weak, sorrowful voice.

She feels her eyes soften and the corner of her mouth slightly turn upwards, a pained smile hovering her lips. It isn't the first time he calls out his mother, Lightning recalls, he said it the first time when they were resting at the Vile Peaks and at that time, she'd thought he mistook her for his mother in his sleep but maybe she was the one in the wrong, maybe he'd been dreaming of his mother all along.

"Mom…" he mutters once again in the same tone, moving slightly from his initial position.

The way he's whispering her name brings her back six years earlier, when her mother died which made Serah started to sneak up on her bed again, something she hadn't done for several years, ever since they slept in separate rooms actually. She remembers waking up to muffled cries, cracking an eye open only to see her little sister grieving for their mother. She remembers feeling sad too mostly because Serah was sad so she used to stroke her head the same way their mother did when they were younger and it'd somehow appease her, her muffled cries stopping as she drift into good sleep. She'd then keep caressing her head till sleep welcomed her once again.

At that time, Serah was twelve—just two years younger than Hope.

A kid, that is.

Sighing softly, Lightning decides to settle at his side, lying her gunblade next to her right thigh. Hope, at the new presence beside him unwittingly turns his whole body towards her, first resting his head on her shoulder before slipping down her chest and then to her lap, shifting into fetal position.

She doesn't look down because she knows he probably doesn't want anyone to see that weak side of his so she simply lets her long fingers run through his silver hair, caressing his locks, smoothing him and looks up to the dark night sky, humming a lullaby her mother used to sing when she was a child in her head, moving her fingers along with the melody.

"Mom…" she hears him whisper again and this time, he sounds serene.

And so her blue gaze is locked to the scenery above her, wishing upon the few stars that glow in the dark to keep him—all of them—safe.

Unbeknownst to her, her space gives more comfort to the people she cares she'll probably ever know.

**Words** 956


	3. day three, trust (iii)

I don't own _Final Fantasy XIII_ or its sequels.

A small oneshot for hoperai week, day 3. FF13-2!verse. Shorter than usual. No spoilers. Set before day 1. _partners_.  
English isn't my first language so bad grammar and weird sentence structures are to be expected. Criticism and reviews are obviously welcomed.

Hope is more than a word, more than a name. It's everything.

_Hyaku no kotoba yori tsutaetai koto ga aru  
Hyaku no kotoba yori tsutawaru to shinjite iru_

_(There's something I want to convey more than a hundred words_  
_I believe it'll be conveyed better than a hundred words)_

_Maaya Sakamoto, More than Words._

* * *

**More than Words  
trust**

In his almost everlasting dream, he sees her, but can't reach her.

His vision is a bit hazy but he sees her anyway and she looks exactly like he remembers save for the clothes that make her look like a warrior goddess with all that armor and white feathers. He often watches her fight, fight against that man called Caius and notices how she still possesses that glorious aura he's seen back when they were still l'Cie but sometimes, when they don't fight, he watches her stand alone in a grand hall, a place he deduces to be Etro's throne room and prays the goddess.

He wants to say something, to talk to her and maybe he does, but the words don't reach her, his voice too faint to be noticed in the chaos of Valhalla but Hope doesn't despair because it's only in his dream he can see her so he remains at her side though there's no interaction between them.

He doesn't know how long he's been staying with her, watching her doing a routine between fighting and praying and watching over them but it's good dream, he's having a good dream yet one day or something akin to _suddenly_ because time doesn't exist in Valhalla and so _one day_ cannot exist either, he feels overwhelmed, torn but it doesn't hurt, it just feels uncomfortable.

He is a bit worried but he doesn't think much about it, assuming that it's just a side effect of the time capsule he's sleeping in until he's proven wrong when he can't see her anymore. His hazy vision turns blind and he finally realizes that it's time, the years have gone by and they're already in 400 AC in Pulse.

A part of him wants to acknowledge that time has passed and now he must go back, wake up, welcome Serah and Noel in this new era and help them and protect the world but another part of him doesn't want any of it, the freedom just too pleasant to let it go.

Lightning is just too important to let her go again. Even though he's only dreaming.

Maybe he's selfish, but after all that time with all his friends gone one by one, she's here with him and it's enough, it is more than enough to him.

"Hope."

There's only one person that calls him that way, in that soft yet unfaltering tone and he feels like crying.

"Hope."

She says again and he realizes she's not actually calling him, she's always been saying so much more with that one word, that name.

_(have faith in yourself don't lose hope guide them i'm proud of you please protect her i've got your back protect him too you're doing good hope believe in yourself protect vanille and fang don't give up you're on the right path be careful protect the world have faith in yourself stay safe don't lose hope i'm proud of you please protect serah i've got your back keep an eye at snow too you're doing good hope believe in yourself protect Vanille and Fang don't give up you're on the right path be careful protect the world i trust y—)_

She's reached him.

**Words **535


	4. day four, protection (v)

I don't own _Final Fantasy XIII_ or its sequels.

A drabble for hoperai week, day 4. LR!verse. Spoilers. Set between day 1. _partners _and day 7. _future_.  
English isn't my first language so bad grammar and weird sentence structures are to be expected. Criticism and reviews are obviously welcomed.

He heard her.

_Hontou ni taisetsu na mono wa chiisa na honoo no you ni hakanai_  
_Kaze ga keshite shimawanai you ni futatsu no te wo kazasu yo_

_(Because what is truly important is fleeting like a tiny flame_  
_So that the wind will not blow it out I'll hold out two hands)_

_Maaya Sakamoto, More than Words._

* * *

**More than Words  
protection**

He feels whole again when she frees his soul from Bhunivelze.

These are her feelings that have reached him, the survival knife she's given him centuries ago to protect him have reached him and now that she turns her back again—always, she has always turned her back to protect him—and tells him to go to _their_ new world without her because she's staying alone with the failed god to protect their friends and the people of Nova Chrysalia, he knows that he's finally become a full-grown adult when he doesn't want to listen her.

He is no more a child.

She doesn't falter, her words hold her faith, her beliefs in him and in her duty she has to carry out but Hope knows better, he knows she thinks she knows best but to him, her words sound wrong.

And then he sees her. Mom. With dad, too. They look so happy and so homely and he thinks for a moment this is what he's wanted the most, this is what he's been searching for so many years. A family, a home. Mom looks so, so happy and he's happy too.

He can be reborn in this new world with his whole family and live with them like before.

_"—alone! Please… Save me…"_

But he can't, this isn't right.

He is no more a child, the easy exit isn't right.

She's always been protecting him even when she wasn't by his side and he can't turn his back on her now that he finally hears her, her true feelings and her cries, he knows he can't go with his parents and live a whole new life in the world she wants to give him because he made a promise hundreds years ago and he attends to keep it.

He will protect her.

Mom and dad are disappearing but it's alright, maybe they'll forget him once they get in that new world, maybe he won't see them in that new world but that's okay because Hope won't forget them and he'll keep looking for them till he sees them again.

But for now, saving Lightning is what matters the most.

And as he reaches for her hand, clasping it with his and tightening his hold on her to make sure she doesn't disappear again like last time—he sees her surprised face and suddenly feels the urge to burst out laughing—he knows this is definitely _right_.

"I heard your voice."

**Words **408


	5. day five, alternate universe (vii)

I don't own _Final Fantasy XIII_ or its sequels.

A rather short oneshot for hoperai week, day 5. Post LR!verse. Spoilers. Last chapter of the right timeline_._  
English isn't my first language so bad grammar and weird sentence structures are to be expected. Criticism and reviews are obviously welcomed.

Their journey has come to an end.

_Me no mae no kimi wa  
Ima no, ima dake no, kimi ja nai  
Deatta ikutsu mo no yorokobi ya_  
_Kanashimi to issho ni ikiteru_

_(The you before my eyes_  
_isn't the you, the only you, before me now_  
_You're living together with all the countless joy  
and sorrow you've encountered)_

_Maaya Sakamoto, More than Words._

* * *

**More than Words  
alternative universe**

Claire sees him again in that godless, beautiful world in a body of an adult.

She's crushed against his firm body before she knows it, having only seen a mass of platinum hair which she supposes to belong to him because he's the only one she knows that has silver hair before being pressed against him. He's pulled her into a tight embrace, with his toned arms circling her, brushing past her hips—that touch makes her shudder—and his hands, so much larger than she remembers are resting on her lower back, so warm and so pleasant.

She feels his warmth, hears his heartbeat, beating so fast against his chest and smells him, that scent of cologne and perspiration so foreign because he's a man now yet so comforting because he _has_ become a man. She feels like closing her eyes and enjoys the moment but instead she tenses up as it occurs her that he's actually embracing her.

He never hugged her before, and even when they stood in front of his house back in Palumpolum when Cocoon still existed, he hadn't return her hug—though it was understandable because she'd reacted on the spur of the moment—and here they are, a thousand years after in a new world and their role reversed.

He's the one embracing her and she's the one doing utterly nothing.

He's taller than her. She has to look up to see him, to see the way the white hair of the base of his neck flickers by the spring breeze, and she feels his rapid pulse against her cheek. It's him, she begins to realize and she feels her own heart pounding harder, faster, it's him.

He's here.

This fact sends a shiver down her spine and her arms that stand still tremble as she attempts to rise them, wanting to return his embrace but they don't react to her desires, still flat on her sides. Instead, she settles for the sides of his hips, her hands clutching into the white fabric of his shirt as she buries her face deeper in the hollow of his neck, closing her eyes to appreciate his embrace.

Her gesture only makes him tighten his grip on her even more and she feels his cheekbone rest against her head, nuzzling his face into her pink hair and hears him taking a deep, long breath, inhaling her scent of fresh mint and her hands, in small tremors she can't control, finally answer her and travel slowly from his hips to his upper back, gripping his shirt again with her fists and pressing herself heartily against his toned chest.

"Light," he murmurs in a low, soft voice and the fact he's calling her by that long forgotten name draws a light, contented smile on her lips, "_Light_." he repeats and she feels his boyish grin on his gentle tone, his hot breath tickling her ear as she shivers in pleasure, clutching him tighter.

They've waited a millennia to finally embrace each other.

**Words** 491


	6. day six, dress-up (ii)

I don't own _Final Fantasy XIII _or its sequels.

A very short oneshot, drabble for hoperai week, day 6. FF13-2!verse. No spoilers. Set between day 2. _space_ and day 3. _trust_.  
English isn't my first language so bad grammar and weird sentence structures are to be expected. Criticism and reviews are obviously welcomed.

She watches him grow up, and keep his eyes front.

_Jiyuu tte, setsunakunai desu ka?  
Otona ni nattanda ne  
Jiyuu tte, setsunakunai desu ka?  
Sukoshi dake_

_(Isn't freedom painful?_  
_I've become an adult, haven't I?_  
_Isn't freedom painful?_  
_Just a little)_

_Maaya Sakamoto, More than Words._

* * *

**More than Words  
dress-up**

She's watched him do this many times from the Unseen World, taking the light blue tie from the back of his chair and passing it around his neck to tie a knot. The first years, she's seen him struggle to make a beautiful and clean knot and then, as days went by, she's seen him tie a knot perfectly with a casualness he's learned over the years.

Then, before going to work, he'd stare back at the scenery of Cocoon and its crystallized pillar through the window of his bedroom with a glint of sadness in his green-sea eyes that would vanish as soon it'd appear.

He's grown up since their time as l'Cie yet, Lightning hadn't noticed the changes until one day, he's stopped staring at it, getting ready without wasting a glance sideways. He's grown into a responsible adult, his eyes gleaming with wisdom and cleverness (and sometimes they look melancholic) and his radiance, so bright and so hopeful.

She knows that just because he's not looking back at the crystallized pillar, it doesn't mean he's forgotten them, no—it only means that he's moving forward, taking their dreams with him on the way.

So, watching him from Valhalla as she gets ready for another fight against Caius Ballad, Lightning just smiles.

_Yes, Hope, don't look back, keep your eyes front—I'll watch the rear._

**Words** 224


	7. day seven, future (vi)

I don't own _Final Fantasy XIII_ or its sequels.

A small oneshot for hoperai week, day 7. Post LR!verse. Spoilers. Takes place before day 5. _alternate universe_.  
English isn't my first language so bad grammar and weird sentence structures are to be expected. Criticism and reviews are obviously welcomed.

He's been waiting for hundreds years, he can wait a little longer.

_Hyaku no kotoba yori tsutaetai koto ga aru  
Hyaku no kotoba yori kimi dake wo omotte iru_

_(There's something I want to convey more than a hundred words_  
_More than a hundred words, I'm thinking only of you)_

_Maaya Sakamoto, More than Words._

* * *

**More than Words  
future**

He dreams of a beautiful woman with pastel pink hair and blue eyes like ice.

She looks familiar but he doesn't seem to recall her in his everyday life—he knows absolutely no woman with _pink_ hair but the dreams are so vivid, so real and he's sure he's seen her before but doesn't know when or where.

And apparently in his dreams, he knows her rather well.

In those dreams, he is a kid but still has the mind of an adult and she wears some weird clothes and holds weapons that don't exist in the world. In fact, where they are in his dreams are nowhere close to this world. He dreams of her and him in a whole different word.

Most of the time, she remains stoic though her voice is soft and tranquil when she speaks to him. She has a beautiful voice, he notices and he can't help to compare it with any woman he comes across with, as if he were chasing a dream in the reality. Sometimes, he sees her lips curving ever so slightly, a ghost of a smile hovering over her lips for a second before vanishing.

He knows her name and thinks he says it in the dreams but every time he wakes up, he forgets and he's frustrated because he has to remember—she's not just a dream, she's not just a illusion created by his subconscious because he feels alone, she's real, she has to be.

She has to be in the same world he lives in.

Maybe one day he'll remember her name, and then maybe he'll remember her, and then maybe he'll leave that luxurious apartment of his to find her all over the world and then, maybe, maybe he'll finally find her and tell her how she has never left his mind after all this time being apart from each other.

It'll happen in time, Hope knows for sure, but for the time being, he'll just have to keep dreaming—and that's okay with him; apparently patience is his forte.

.

.

On a one random day, he breathes the word of _Light_ and knows it means _everything_.

**Words **360

* * *

And so we've reached the end of **More than Words**. You can now read it again in the right timeline which you'll find in the first chapter's notes. Feel free, _phamtom reader_, to (finally) leave me a review (at least one, huh) to tell me your thoughts about these rather short oneshots or how I could improve my writing :)

Anyway, thank you for reading it!


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